Red Elizabethan

This was created for Allyson, my college roommate, who is currently a Wolfmark pup. The gown is red satin with a black fleur de lis brocade forepart and sleeves. Each fleur de lis has a cluster of three crimson swarovski crystals. The bodice jewels include black onyx beads and a filigree fleur de lis. The dress is part of a series of black and red outfits embodying the Seven Deadly Sins.

Ally chose Lust.

Tudor Inspired

This dress was made as a birthday present for myself. My birth month is amethyst so the gown bodice is purple velvet with both pale and dark amethysts set into the bodice jewelry. The undergown is gold striped brocade with lavender silk sleeves. This was not an authentic dress and it wasn't meant to be. Just a party dress to have fun in. I believe the pattern is Simplicity.

The bodice jewelry was made with help from Adam. The stones are real, the pearls are glass. In the future I would use different settings for the stones but at the time they were the best I could find. There are earrings that match.

Men's Doublet and Venetian Breeches

This doublet and matching venetian breeches were made for my husband, Adam, in 2005 - 2006. They're made with black silk and lined with crimson satin. The men's shirt is white cotton muslin. The oversleeves can be worn either opened or buttoned.

At Adam's request, a sunburst was quilted into the front of the doublet to give it texture. To pad the sunburst for quilting, a layer of cotton flannel was added between the flatlining and the lining. There are double wings at the shoulders and the doublet and sleeves are edged in black satin cord.

The silk was machine washed with tennis balls multiple times because when it arrived, I hated it. It was way too stiff for what Adam wanted- he prefers that everything he has look as if it's been worn awhile and broken in. Like when new shoes are too white, brand new garb looks stiff and more like a costume than clothing, so I abuse everything that I make for him.

1500 Italian gowns

These two gowns were two of the first I ever made. Both were inspired by Italian renaissance gowns in the early 1500, but as they were made when I was first starting to do costuming, I can't vouch for the authenticity. Both used Simplicity Patterns.

This gown was styled loosely after several portraits, one of which was "Studies of a Woman and a Youth" by Vittore Carpaccio, around 1500, shown on the right. My sister modeled this gown for the photo and wears it occasionally to renaissance faires.

This gown was the first that I ever made and I can't say that it actually has a specific time period. Maybe a mishmash of early 1500 Italian styles. The top of the gown and the sleeves are trimmed in gold braid
Also being modeled by my sister.

12th Night

Since this is the project currently occupying the most thought (and time) I'll start off with this and work my way backward.

The Barony of Endless Hills is hosting 12th Night on January 12 and Wolfmark has decided to lay down swords, clean up a bit and head out to party. While most of our group either has court garb that's already been made specifically for them or happens to fit into someone else's (more posts on those later), Hols has been left out and needs a dress. Dress she picked?

Princess Elizabeth. Very excited because this is a dress I've wanted to try for a long time now but just couldn't see putting in the effort and time for a dress that wouldn't look right on me. I've never made a tudor before except for a simplicity pattern in my pre-trying to be accurate days, so this is a cool challenge for me. Yeah, and I have a month. But we're not discussing that. Back to the dress.

Raiding the MIL's stash, we found blue cotton velvet which will hopefully be enough for the overgown and sleeves. Last night my brother was diving into my stash and found pale ice blue brocade with tiny ivory maltese crosses, so that'll be the forepart and undersleeves. I'll hopefully find some cream silk for the underdress in Joann's on a trip to Scranton. At some point there will probably have to be a corded underskirt because I can't see this dress looking right without one.

Pattern was ordered from Reconstructing History about a week ago and I also have a local seamstress sending me a copy of the Tudor Tailer pattern in Holly's size so I have a backup. With a month to go, we're not taking chances.

The hardest part of the dress so far has been getting the jewelry components. Tudor jewelry seems to be covered in ouches and so far I've only found one company in all North America that makes them, and I'm not a big fan. Not to mention they're $5.00 a pop. My husband was less than enthusiastic about my request that he make me them (shouldn't have gone to college and taken classes in jewelry design if you have no intent to be helpful!) and he was even LESS enthusiastic when I discovered that we would need a $600.00 kiln. Shot that idea out of the water. So we found these:

http://stores.channeladvisor.com/accessoriessusan/Items/x5?sck=43658693

which will be set with square blue acrylic "stones." Not a fan of acrylics but people also need to eat and sapphires are just a little beyond the budget at the moment. Throw in some ivory glass pearls and I think we'll be set.

So hopefully the patterns will come in soon and I can get started on this project. In the meantime, Jake raided my stash and discovered blue velvet that I believe was once someone's drapes and decided that he needs a new outfit too. Slashed blue velvet doublet and slops with pale blue silk underlay. My mom has the posterboard patterns(all the guys are roughly the same size so we made a hard, resuable copy) at her house so I'm hoping she'll bring them up when she comes for Christmas because I hate cutting patterns more than anything on earth. At least I won't be bored.